Tag: Books I like

Books I Like #6

Geronimo: His Own Story: The Autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior by Geronimo, with S. M. Barrett and Frederick W. Turner

Plume (revised edition) 1996)

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Here’s some history that was not told by the victors, though they did transcribe and edit it. It’s an amazing and enraging account.

Geronimo was not a chief, though he did become a war chief of the Mescalero Apaches. In this book he recounts for us the story of how his tribe ran afoul of the Tucson city fathers, who got tired of Apache raids and decided to have the Apaches removed, and how Geronimo led the fight to stay put. He was a brilliant leader, and managed to keep his small band of warriors and family together and on their land for years. Geronimo’s retelling made me hate those old Tusconans just as much as Woody Guthrie’s talking about their grandsons did in Bound For Glory.

This book is also notable for the archival photos of Geronimo and other Mescaleros. I got a lot out of them. They were all taken post-capture, so there’s an air of sadness to them, but I also loved that how Geronimo’s personality was captured in some of them. He was a very charismatic man, stylish and uniquely handsome, as well as being one of the fiercest warriors the world has yet seen.

Books I Like #2

Assassin’s Fate: Book III of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy by Robin Hobb

Del Rey, New York 2017

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I am a genre reader and writer, and this is my genre.

This book stands in for the entire 15-book sequence, from Assassin’s Apprentice on, and including the Liveship Traders books. You are not allowed to skip the Liveship books, because you need that part of the story for the huge payoff you get in this book. Part of why this works so well for me may have to do with the fact that I’ve been reading them since the very first one was new, eagerly anticipating each one as it hit the shelves like a total nerd. She also wrote the Soldier’s Son trilogy (which I also love, by the way) in the same period, so that’s 18 books on the highest level of epic fantasy writing, all published within a 15 year span. They range in length from about 500 to over 1000 pages.

They chronicle a time when the world built to tell the story in changes over the space of about 50 to 60 years. 9 of the 15 books focus on a dreamer/clairvoyant who is determined to change the course of history, and who is gender variant, sometimes presenting as male, sometimes as female, and who never reveals a set gender identity at all (the Fool) and their catalyst, the bastard son of a dethroned heir-apparent prince from a large medieval-equivalent kingdom (FitzChivalry Farseer).

Books I Like #1

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

Candlelick Press, Cambridge MA, 2006

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I was a puddle of goo by the end of this book. It is simply the most beautiful thing I have ever read.

It was recommended to me by Jørn Otte, a friend of mine from my MFA program, who writes YA fiction and nonfiction. He said it was his favorite book, and the passion he obviously felt for it was convincing. As soon as I had headspace to read something on my own recognizance, this was my choice.

It has a Buddhist feel, but it is about as close to atheist a fantasy as one could imagine, and it is a deeply spiritual book. Edward’s journey, and it is a journey in all senses of the word, is as described, and I was gutted at the end of it. If I didn’t have a hundred things in my tbr pile, I’d pick it up and read it again right now. I’m sorely tempted to do that anyway, but I can’t really justify it.